Salt & Wonder is an independent print magazine portraying the roots and new movements of the culinary startup culture in Europe, one city at a time. We are a high quality indie magazine with an cultural background on the search for innovation and tradition.

Off to new Grounds

Out to search the roots in Barcelona in April 2017

In the light of everyday Spanish vida in Barcelona, tourists float among the active crowd with high expectations. The streets are filled with a random and relaxed beauty, and for visitors, there’s a very strong urge to fall in place with the city right upon opening the window to the evergreen breeze’s dusty, salty air. With questions of a creative future rattling around our heads, we found a perfect nourishing ground for them at OFFF Festival. For three days this April we dove deep into Barcelona’s culinary Mecca and took our questions to the field. And by the end of our trip, we’d landed on a brilliant new idea.

“If you give people the freedom to grow on their own, the liberty to find their own way of communicating without giving them a set of instructions, they’ll end up with something far more interesting.” — Hector Ayuso

Entering New Culinary Ground

What if we had no instructions just the freedom to grow on our own project? What would it be that makes our heart pound a bit louder?

Right now Barcelona has seen its culinary scene evolve on its own terms — and we’ve fallen for its culinary movements all over again. A strong passion for high quality food and experiments around every corner reflect a shift away from the good old tapas. We had the pleasure to visit one of those new food concepts we’ve been following online, which helped us set the base for our own culinary endeavor.

The Rooftop Smokehouse is a meeting place, a shop and food-smoking laboratory located in a beautiful old doll factory between Universtiat and Plaza Espana. New ideas and dishes that use traditional techniques like smoking and fermenting generate from the smokehouse in a constant flow. When the founding couple, Carla & Buster, moved from London to Barcelona, they missed the smoked flavors in food. Now, they master their continuously expanding and buzzing concept which started with that simple craving for good smoked food shared with friends. The curious and dedicated founders keep Rooftop Smokehouse an ever changing project based on the most honest principles of food — good ingredients, time and handwork.

A New Concept Emerges

Born in the Alps. Out to search for roots.

Talking to Carla and Buster and seeing their beliefs and visions sharpened our view on what we’re aiming at: not to just experience another beautiful restaurant, but to explore and express culinary beauty as something meaningful — something tied to nature, culture, and art. We want to create a culinary form of identity for our own country, Austria.

The goal is to explore the real roots of old Austrian techniques like fermenting, smoking and distilling, which are part of a new global food movement. We want to leave no stone unturned, examine varied Austrian nature and ecosystems from thermal sources to nourishing fields and high alpine areas; and how they influence peoples’ old traditions andtheir culinary beliefs.

We want to dive deep into nature and culture to understand the development of the role of food in its relation its country to trigger ideas and conversations about a new food movement made in Austria.We believe there’s a shift back to the earth emerging in Austria’s culinary scene. We want to find out how these concepts fit that model. We happily encourage your collaboration with us. If you know any great Austrian food concepts or want to become part of our project yourself, we’re happy to hear from you.